In Response To … The Man Booker Prize

Posted on October 1, 2010 in Uncategorized

It’s that time of year again. The winner of the daddy of the literary prizes – the Man Booker – is due to be announced on 12th October.

The 2010 shortlist was announced on 7th September and and, in case you haven’t already seen it, is as follows:

Peter Carey Parrot and Olivier in America (Faber and Faber)
Emma Donoghue Room (Picador – Pan Macmillan)
Damon Galgut In a Strange Room (Atlantic Books – Grove Atlantic)
Howard Jacobson The Finkler Question (Bloomsbury)
Andrea Levy The Long Song (Headline Review – Headline Publishing Group)
Tom McCarthy C (Jonathan Cape – Random House)

It seems to be generally accepted that the Man Booker is the most high profile of literary prizes in the UK – if not the world, if the prize’s website it to be believed. According to BookBrowse.com, it is the ‘most watched single-book award in the English-speaking world’.  But why is this the case? Can we as readers trust that the Booker prize is going to recommend fantastic fiction to us every year without fail?

It’s not the country’s oldest literary prize, the honour of which goes to the James Tait Black Memorial Prize, established in 1919. The £50 000 cash value probably helps it to be taken seriously, and the judges usually include a selection of heavyweights from the literary establishment – this year’s panel includes former Poet Laureate Sir Andrew Motion, and Rosie Blau, literary editor of the Financial Times – so you’d hope we can trust these people to know their stuff. But can these factors alone account for the inevitable surge in press coverage and sales that a Booker nominee will enjoy?

Looking at the list of previous winners, I realise that I’ve actually read the past twelve. Amongst them have been books I’ve been wowed by – Disgrace and The Life of Pi – books that I’ve quite enjoyed – Wolf Hall and The Line of Beauty­ – and possibly my least favourite book of all time – The Gathering – a particularly galling win for me, considering that 2007’s shortlist also included some absolutely wonderful books (in my humble opinion), such as The Reluctant Fundamentalist, Mister Pip and, in particular, Darkmans by Nicola Barker. So, a bit hit and miss as far as I’m concerned, and I’m sure that many would agree with me.

Of course, it goes without saying that in any prize that attempts to judge artistic merit and worth, there’s going to be an extremely large dose of subjectivity and controversy – just look at the Turner prize. Not everyone will always agree with the judge’s selection. Perhaps that’s part of the attraction – everyone loves a good moan about how their favourite didn’t win in any sort of competition. But the object of the prize is to reward and promote excellence in fiction – take a look at the prize’s website – so we’re obviously entitled to expect a good read.

Andrew Motion, who is chairing the judges this year, has provoked some discussion with his comment that ‘we feel sure we’ve chosen books which demonstrate a rich variety of styles and themes – while in every case providing deep individual pleasures’. Should the Booker judges be looking for variety in their long- and short-lists, or merely focusing on the very best literature that is out there? I think it’s a reasonable criteria – the Booker by its very nature is recommending innovation and creativity in writing to the reading public, and I think we can expect that the shortlist isn’t just a dull list of variations on a theme.

This year’s shortlist doesn’t include any debut novels – in fact, Aravind Adiga’s The White Tiger is one of only four debut novel to win the prize – so we can be confident that these authors have paid their dues. Jonathan Ruppin, web editor at Foyles, even goes as far as to say that ‘very few writers are ever really good enough first time out to be serious contenders’. The biggest name on there is Peter Carey, who has won the prize twice before, with Oscar and Lucinda and True History of the Kelly Gang, and who will be the first author to win the Booker three times if he triumps on the 12th. The omission of other big-hitters, Martin Amis and Ian McEwan, has provoked comment in some circles, as has the failure of David Mitchell to make it beyond the long-list, but the fact that authors whose work obviously has merit and might otherwise go unread is surely a good thing – Amis, McEwan and Mitchell are guaranteed press coverage and sales whatever they do. The favourite is said to be C by Tom McCarthy, an experimental novel that has received high praise from many critics.

So what can we as publishers take from this – well, it’s really stating the obvious that anything that raises the profile (and sales) of books in general and literary fiction in particular can only be a good thing. Much as I’m a fan of Mitchell, McEwan and Amis, who wants to live in a world where they’re the only players in a notoriously presitgious by difficult to sell field? It’s a serious business for sure – winning the Booker can make the career of an unknown novelist – but as readers, let’s enjoy it for what it is – a list of recommendations that will perhaps open our eyes to our new favourite writer.